How to Break The Godforsaken Facebook Algorithm

The changes made to the Facebook algorithm in 2018 sucked majorly. Businesses all over the internet freaked out as their engagement dropped, likes fell off, and they lost the eyeballs they had worked SO HARD to bring to their pages. Why were some of these businesses failing on Facebook? It wasn’t because their content wasn’t any good, it was because Facebook wants to keep users on its platform.

I know, it’s shocking. Or maybe, not so much if you’ve already figured this out. Either way, your content isn’t doing as well as it once did on Facebook and you need to know how TF to beat the algorithm and get the eyeballs you lost back.

Ultimately, there are thousands of factors that inform Facebook’s algorithm of meaningful interaction. These factors range from using trigger words that indicate important events (e.g., “congratulations”) to whether or not you’ve clicked a link in a post before liking it.

Today, Facebook rewards the content that produces these interactions the best: person-to-person content. Facebook’s end goal here isn’t just to match News Feed content to the individual interests of each user — it’s to display News Feed content that reveals connections between each user.

Your content strategy is going to need to change, so get comfortable with that. Next, you’re going to have to start taking more photos and utilizing video – if you haven’t already. Let’s walk through some ideas that can help you re-vamp that flailing content strategy of yours. 1. Eye-Catching Images In an earlier post, I mentioned how we’re a visual society, IE Instagram. The key to creating a visually stunning image or series or images rests in your ability to be a little bit of a photographer and designer. If you’re neither of those things, these two courses can help you (or you can just own up to it and hire someone to help). Here are some great and creative images that don’t require that much work and will bring some eyeballs onto your page.

Start A DiscussionThis doesn’t mean just post some random text. Nooooo. This means you dig deep, understand what type of post works best with your community, and utilizing that posting strategy to start your conversation. There are tons of ways you can do this; Images, polls, videos, and bringing on a special guest for a Facebook Live session.

These are the people who will go up to bat for your brand. You want to get in contact with these customers and invite them to participate in your brand advocacy program. Some people who do brand influencing will want to get paid for this, and YES you should PAY THEM, but there are some green users out there who are willing to throw you a bone for some free product. If you’re a mom type brand, find moms (oh hi there, I’m a mom) and connect with them. Moms buy products other moms love. Before you think any further, you need to create some standards your brand advocates (paid or given free product) need to adhere to. Once you’ve established through guidelines (such as a post on Instagram about this product and tag us) then you can move forward with creating a full-blown program that will make you look better than your competition. When Nike let their Kaepernick campaign loose people lost their proverbial shit and began burning anything Nike that had in their homes. There were advocates thought that came to Nike’s aid and reinforced its branding and a new message. The company since releasing this campaign has lost quite a lot of stock, but they grossed 2X their normal seasonal sales because they stood behind a message and their advocates did too.

Link Less, Photo More

In this post I talk about Image based content strategy and honestly, looking at the results below you can already tell how much better an image does VS a link. According to Sprout Social, “Visual content goes hand in hand with Facebook’s best practices by garnering 87% more engagement. That’s why every post should be accompanied by some sort of visual, be it an infographic, .gif or an otherwise eye-popping image.”

Shift Your Key Content Into Facebook GroupsI’m beating a dead horse here for some people, but it’s the reality: You need a Facebook Group. If you’re running a business where you’re teaching people things, helping them grow as individuals, etc. you need to take steps towards moving them from their FB page (which they only see when they interact with it) and into a group. Facebook groups are a community focused piece of Facebook. Therefore it publishes group posts directly into your follower’s timelines, creating high visibility for you and whatever you’re talking about.

Pay To Play

Stop that thought, if you’re not willing to invest a few hundred bucks a month into some minimal advertising on Facebook what are you doing online? It’s time you get comfortable with paying for ads. To grow, we all have to spend a little money. According to Monica Louie, the Facebook Ads expert, you need to spend a minimum of $5 per day to see a basic ROI on anything you’re advertising. So what are you waiting for? Take her class and learn more about it.

Bring On The Video

Video content is responsible for 500 million hours of watch time on Facebook and YouTube alone. That’s a ton of content, 45% of the content market to be exact. I believe it’s important for you to play your part in that. You need to focus on making sure you’re able to produce solid videos that portray your value as an expert in your niche and brand. Your videos don’t need to be TV quality because to make that happen you need to practice. Make 100 videos and share them/post them across your channels. They will not be great to start with, but if you don’t practice and learn what works for your followers and users, you’ll never know what direction you need to take. Here are some ideas you can base your videos off of:

When it comes down to it, getting people to convert, watch your content, engage with your brand, and reach high status of advocacy requires a ton of work on your part – especially on social media. Facebook prioritizes people over brands unless you pay for ads. It’s all about servicing the people who follow you, not the other way around.

Take the time to get to know the people who love your brand and build a relationship with them. Social media wasn’t created to sell shit on; it was created to help connect and socially enhance the lives of everyone in the world. Don’t forget that.

Working with Sarah has been such an incredible learning experience. It’s provided me the tools and support I’ve always needed to get next level with my business.

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